At the very beginning of 2001 Cortez formed (maybe that should read Vortex- as it really sucks you into its hardcore laced fury). Their music holds a very experimental flavour of rotting rhythms and gigantic riffs that implode on listening – first issued in 2005. Now soon to be released as a 10th Anniversary edition with a striking cover that really says a lot about the band, defined in darkness with the shape of a bird outlined in its eerie but bold twig like configuration scratched into the cover.
Here is out track-by-track review:
Prompt – This track delves into an anger that is rarely seen or witnessed other than by a patient from a lunatic asylum or from the person caring for said patient in a lunatic asylum! Although at 16 seconds it just catches that glimpse.
Mine de rien – (Casual) – Still not averting from the anger this track is framed with aggressive confrontation stirring up a flood of empowering riffs and conjuring up a defying malignance.
L’enjeu – (The Challenge) – This is a really long track at over ten minutes which gives you plenty of time to soak up its tempestuous inflamed grooves and vocal savagery.
El Vetic – Another long track but this time just over seven minutes and offers the listener a twisting turn of powerful grooves in which the circumstances do not falter from the previous one. Its in-depth severity of brutish rhythms and steely rancour pushes it into a ruthless dynamic.
Marasme – (Slump) – Pushing the boundaries with surging drum beats and savage riffs that are highly delightful, this track also offers a punishing sombre edge, that possesses a dim melodic embrace.
Néant – (Nothingness) – The bubbling entourage of beats are exorcised through a barely audible snarl that just about whets the appetite at only fifty three seconds long!
L.M.T.V – This track does throw caution to the wind and holds a lot of fuzziness that oozes from the steel riffs and surly bass hooks.
B.M.T.V – This is like a battering ram as it comes with its own ferocity of noise related tones and screams.
Notice – Twists and turns into a gigantic swathe of menace that torments the ears in gnawing fashion, however is a track that easily builds to epic proportions!
Patriarch – To finish is another long track, again over seven minutes, it blisters with a scorching rhythm that scales the heights as well as sinking to its deep depths, meaning it indeed covers a wide range.
Initial Reissue 10th Anniversary by Cortez is out 9th September 2016 via Wooaagh – Get a Life!
